USER STORY
Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation teams up with
GIFTS to make grant tracking an easy game to play
FOUNDATION PROFILE
Foundation Type: Independent Foundation / Sports Philanthropy
Number of Users: 4
System: GIFTS-Access
Modules: Customizer, AP Link
Background
Sports philanthropy is an emerging
trend that enables sports
organizations the opportunity to
effectively invest in their
communities. When the Jaguars
were named as the 30th franchise
in 1993, co-owners Wayne and
Delores Barr Weaver’s vision was
to give back to the community in
a substantive manner.
The Jacksonville Jaguars
Foundation was announced on
September 14, 1994, and
awarded its first grants before the
team played its first game. From
March 1995 through June 2002,
the Jaguars Foundation has
allocated more than $5.1 million
dollars in grants. This level of
giving is among the top few in
professional sports. The Weavers
also wanted their programs, such
as Honor Rows–a seat incentive
program for youth to earn a game
day seat by setting goals, to set a
precedent for other sports
philanthropy foundations. Now 12
other professional sports teams in
the NFL and other sports’ leagues
have adopted programs that
mirror Honor Rows.
www.microedge.com
GOAL - A Simple Way to
Track Grants
importantly, uniform for all the
employees of the foundation.
Implementing a simple way to
track grants is the goal of the
Jaguars Foundation’s MicroEdge
GIFTS database system. Annually,
the Jaguars Foundation tracks
more than $1 million in cash grants
and over $400,000 in non-cash
grants that are given in the form
of blocks of seats. Keeping track
of payment schedules and being
able to sort data and generate
quick reports detailing what’s due
and what’s coming up are
important to them, says Cyndi
Hawks, Administrative Assistant/
GIFTS Administrator.
Peter Racine, the foundation’s
executive director, also finds the
contact management
functionality helpful. “We try not
to duplicate contact cards in
Outlook and other systems. We try
to keep the information
centralized so that when we
update it we’re not trying to
update it in too many places.”
“Tallying the information
required so you have a
quick view for grants and
Honor Rows is a big timesaver,”
says Cyndi Hawks.
Robust, Easy, Uniform
Then there is the job of tracking all
the other information they use, like
demographics and organization
information. When they
implemented GIFTS in 2000, after
several years of using Microsoft
Excel databases, they acquired a
robust platform that makes these
operations simple, easy, and most
[email protected]
“However, if needed,
being able to create
Outlook contact cards
from GIFTS is a great function,”
adds Cyndi.
The Jaguars Foundation also uses
the optional Customizer Module,
which allows you to add new
data entry screens and additional
fields to GIFTS. The Module is a
great fit for grants and Honor Rows
and other programs unique to
sports philanthropy organizations.
“It’s really great that GIFTS has the
flexibility to add new fields that we
want to track,” states Peter
Racine.
(over)
800.899.0890
A Significant Time Saver
GIFTS has been integrated into
every employee’s work process.
From being able to review and
edit the past year’s evaluations to
tracking past and future
payments, the Jaguars
Foundation has found GIFTS to be
a significant time saver as well.
“For past grants, to be able to
draw on and edit evaluations from
the past year instead of having to
rewrite all new ones… that’s been
very helpful,” says Racine.
Does this improve on the way
things were done before GIFTS?
www.microedge.com
“Tremendously! Grant
payment scheduling and
tracking is 100% better
since we started using GIFTS,” says
Cyndi Hawks.
Success – Solid strategy,
Stronger Community
The Jaguars Foundation takes
their goal of ensuring
economically and socially
disadvantaged children
opportunities and support as
seriously as the Jaguars team
takes its competition. Success in
sports and sports philanthropy
[email protected]
requires having a good system
and a solid strategy. While Jack
Del Rio, head coach of the
Jaguars, trains his players to make
the most out of their skills, the
Foundation staff uses GIFTS so they
can make the most out of their
abilities, and the end result is a
stronger community.
For more on The Jacksonville
Jaguars Foundation:
http://www.jaguars.com
800.899.0890